


I Took Your Hand

by GiveMeHeresy



Series: Astro-Synchronous [2]
Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 19:31:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiveMeHeresy/pseuds/GiveMeHeresy
Summary: Things go quiet again, aside from the sound of the water’s flow. Calming and comforting, along with his touch. Devon feels so weighed down, but as much as she would love to stay here all day and fall asleep in his arms like in some romantic vid, they have a life outside of this pocket of space they’re in.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The waterfall scene Happened and I'm deleting myself from existence permanently after writing this BYE.

Devon collapses against his chest, feeling as if she's about to melt against the concave-tentacle-collarbone thing the angara - her angara, at this point - has going on. Jaal seems just as exhausted, and satisfied, as she feels, but he still reaches up to trace shapes on her bare shoulders and back with his hands. He releases a long sigh as he rests his head against hers.  
  
She turns her head so that she's able to stare out of their crevice, toward the waterfall's flow. She can't remember the last time she's felt true peace like this, not with all that's been going on, and Lord knows did she need a moment like this. Does wonders for muscle tension.  
  
"...so..." he says, voice hardly above a mumble, "...how did I do?"  
  
She smiles against his skin as her eyes fall shut. "...I certainly don't think I'll be able to take men of any other species seriously anymore."  
  
Jaal's chest rumbles with quiet laughter. "...I'm sure you're joking."  
  
"Nope," she says, as she carefully lifts a hand and starts gently tracing circles where his shoulder meets his torso, "I'm being one-hundred percent honest. I am filled with euphoric joy that makes me want to bounce off the walls, but physically unable to do so. Going by that I'd say you did exceptionally well."  
  
He laughs again. She doesn't think she'll ever get tired of hearing that sound. "I'm glad to hear it."  
  
"Aaaand-" Devon pushes herself up on her elbows and smiles down at him. "-what about me? How did I do?"  
  
He reaches up and brushes her bangs away from her face, with a look on her face so warm she almost does melt. "I don't think there are any words in your language that can come close to capturing it."  
  
"Hm." She takes his hand before he draws it away and presses it against her cheek with a teasing smile. "That bad, huh?"

Jaal smooths his thumb over her cheekbone. “Quite the opposite.”

“Flatterer.”

“I try.”

Good God, she really can’t handle the way he looks at her. Stupid angara and their stupid emotions, probably able to express them more strongly than humans or any other species is physically capable of. It makes her feel unbearably giddy inside so much that she thinks her heart will burst out of her chest if she returns eye contact for too long, and that would be a really bad way to end such a phenomenal date.

_This is technically a date, right?_

Devon wonders how she’ll explain something like this to her brother. _Hey Donny, turns out there’s a whole other species that lives here, and they’re pretty damn cool. Also I’m dating one of them. Allow me to introduce you to my angaran boyfriend._ It would be better news than having to elaborate on their father’s death and the whole this galaxy actually sucks situation she left him with last time they ‘spoke.’ There’s the chance of his head combusting, though. He’s always been pretty protective.

She frowns. She’s just making herself sad thinking about stuff like this. No. Right now is her time to be happy. And she is happy! Nothing shoulder matter to her right now other than she, Jaal, and the breathtaking place he took the time to bring her to.

The look on Jaal’s face changes to something of concern. Also painful to look at for too long. “Is something wrong?”

_Oh. He noticed. Great job, asshole._

“Not at all,” she says as she shakes her head, puts a wide smile back on her face, and presses herself back down against his torso, “just thinking that...I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in my life. Thanks for bringing me here. You’re the best boyfriend ever.”

He snorts. He actually snorts, as he pulls his hand away from her. “’Boyfriend’?”

“Ah, sorry. Idiom for a man someone’s romantically involved with.” Devon chases his hand with her own as he pulls it away, and laces their fingers together as best she can manage. “Not nearly as poetic as ‘darling one,’ I don’t think. I’ll work on it.”

Jaal’s response is to squeeze her hand and press a kiss to her hair. “I think it’s just fine.”

“Glad to hear it,” she replies, “still gonna try and come up with something better, though. I have to show off my own sappy skills sometime.”

“...you think I’m sappy?” _Oh no. He sounds a bit hurt..? Stupid._

She squeezes his hand back as a kind-of apology. “In the best possible way. How do you think you lured me in? I love that stuff. It’s nice. Makes me feel all fuzzy. Don’t sweat it.”

“Hm.” She feels his body grows less tense, as if relieved. Whew. This is probably why she’s been single for the last...600+ years. “I’m happy you think so.”

Things go quiet again, aside from the sound of the water’s flow. Calming and comforting, along with his touch. Devon feels so weighed down, but as much as she would love to stay here all day and fall asleep in his arms like in some romantic vid, they have a life outside of this pocket of space they’re in.

Might as well enjoy the time they have left until either of them decides it’s time to go back and join the others, before they think the two of them have eloped or something.

_Ooh._

“Hey,” she says, as she pushes herself up again to look down on him, “wanna go for one more swim?”

Jaal’s eyes flutter open. He’s probably about ready to pass out too. “Didn’t we already swim?”

Devon purses her lips. “That was, for like, less than a minute, and I was too distracted by your confession of undying love for me, and the fact that you were stark naked, to actually comprehend that I was more than waist-deep in gorgeous water I would love to indulge myself in.”

“Ah.” He chuckles. “I’m pleased to hear I hold your attention so well.”

_Oh, Lord, you have no idea._

She raises a hand and playfully pokes his nose. “I haven’t truly swam in over 600 years, mind you - and not only that: I don’t know how it works for you angara, but I feel myself getting sticky, smelly, and gross, and I want to stave that off before I’m subjected to the Tempest’s showers.”

“Now that, I can understand,” he says, and shifts himself a little.

“Come on, then.” Devon presses her hands against the cool stone, and pushes herself up until she’s at least on her knees as well as off of him. “I’m not asking you to race me. We can just float around for a little while.”

“If that’s what you want.”

He starts to get up, and she subsequently shoots up to her feet and turns away toward the opening in the cavern with her hand over her mouth. Despite how they literally just...did it, she - for some reason - can’t help but revert back to being embarrassed and shy like some inexperienced teenager. I guess it’s only in the moment.

“Come on, slowpoke.” She does turn her head around a little. “You can’t be that ti-”

A blur of violet, the feeling of two arms throwing themselves around her, and the force of her being shoved forward hard all cut her off. She hears Jaal’s laughter beneath the sound of her yelling, cut short as they hit the water. Devon immediately forces herself out of the angara’s grip, before she gets up to the surface with her cheeks puffed out, and whips herself around to face him.

He’s still laughing, almost unable to stand up straight, aside from the fact that he’s in water disturbed by the two of them falling into it. Devon angrily splashes him several times, but she can’t help but grin like a child.

“You jackass!” she shouts as she continues to splash him, certainly wide awake now, “What would you have done if I hit my head on a rock and died?!”

Unfazed by the water she’s throwing at him, he wades towards her with open arms as his laughter dies down. “I would mourn, but also be confused as to why a measly rock took down the Pathfinder.”

Devon crosses her arms over her chest and glares at him, but doesn’t protest as Jaal gently wraps his own arms around her and nestles her beneath his chin. Mock-anger is difficult when it comes to him.

“I hate you,” she says.

“I love you too, dearest.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have one (1) more fic idea for these two that I'm working on hhh I feel bad because I don't feel I'm doing Jaal justice.
> 
> Thanks to the folks who supported "Pretty." I really do appreciate the kindness.


End file.
